“As if I would act so foolishly!” Everyone knows perfectly well that I came here. They certainly won’t keep quiet. They’ll cling to the slightest clue and never let go.”

The taut exchange between them was as sharp as a blade.

Feeling his ice-cold gaze upon her, Cordelia pressed her lips tightly together.

Her palms were drenched in cold sweat.

“How about this? Give me a chance. I can prove my usefulness to Your Highness right now.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, if you will only give me the opportunity. I also have a condition.”

“And what is that condition?”

Her voice remained steady.

This was because the golden light surrounding the man had become increasingly intense.

He is here. He is the right choice.

It was as though the light itself were insisting upon it.

‘That must be the miracle of Bluerose……’

The Bluerose symbolises good fortune.

According to family records, the first Duke of Bluerose was a woman who would sometimes see the correct choice appear to her in a golden light.

Just as it had done before, it appeared to Cordelia now.

The man standing before her began to glow brilliantly with golden light.

Cordelia had never imagined that she would witness this miracle first-hand. Yet, unlike in the past, the Bluerose miracle had finally awakened within her.

And of all times, it had manifested at a moment like this.

If this was fate, if this was the miracle that had allowed her to return to the past…

‘I have to try something.’

As though drawn forward by an invisible force, she took a step towards him.

She could sense the hidden presences surrounding the Crown Prince becoming alert again, but she did not stop.

“First, give me your word, Your Highness.”

Standing very close to him, Cordelia looked up into Noel Rudel Etar Skia’s merciless, impenetrable eyes.

She looked into his merciless, impenetrable eyes.

“What would you do if I could cure you?”

“Cure what?”

“If I could take away Your Highness’s pain. If I could become your salvation.”

He smiled sharply.

“If you can truly do that, then anything.”

His awl-like smile was layered with displeasure, and his eyes sank into darkness.

His voice carried the weight of sincerity as it enveloped her with a deep resonance.

“No matter what it is, I will give it to you.”

For a moment, Cordelia felt a sense of kinship with him.

It was an understanding of the man before her.

Yes, you are desperate too. Just like me. You are in agony, as though you have swallowed fire.

“Then prove it, Cordelia.”

The man’s intense gaze seemed to seize her heart, everything about him as deep and impenetrable as fog.

“In return, promise that you will not have me beheaded, no matter what I do.”

This was a gamble.

Cordelia swallowed dryly.

“What exactly are you planning to do?”

He laughed as though the request were absurd, but his words sounded like permission.

Cordelia did not hesitate.

She reached out and dared to cover the nobleman’s eyes with her hand.

“……!”

He flinched. The sensation of his eyelashes moving beneath her palm tickled her skin.

Her lips parted.

Perhaps this was madness. But she had read about it long ago in one of the family’s books.

The opposite of a curse was…

‘A blessing.’

The method was to make physical contact with the other person and……

‘If the power of the God of Fortune truly exists……’

The miracle said to flow through Bluerose.

‘Please.’

All she had to do was breathe it into him.

Cordelia rose onto her toes and kissed the Crown Prince without hesitation.

***

Noel, the crown prince of the Skia Empire, was a highly talented actor.

He had an almost uncanny ability to control his emotions, enabling him to hide the constant pain he endured.

He was so adept at concealing his innermost thoughts that only members of the Imperial Family knew that he suffered from severe mysophobia.

He never allowed anyone to get close to him and had never experienced any form of intimate contact with a woman.

The shadow guards who had served the Crown Prince for years were well aware of this.

Richel, in particular, had been Noel’s foster brother since birth. The sight unfolding before him left him so stunned that his heart nearly leapt from his chest.

‘Good heavens!’

The Crown Prince was kissing a woman right before his very eyes.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that she had kissed him. Either way, they were breathing together and their contact was undeniably intimate.

The kiss was so passionate that the shadow knights momentarily forgot their duty, wondering whether they should avert their eyes out of embarrassment.

Moreover, Richel caught a fleeting glimpse of it.

He saw how his lord’s expression changed when the daughter of the Duke of Bluerose’s lips touched his.

That expression!

It alone stopped him from stepping forward, despite his astonishment.

He had thought this meeting was nothing more than a passing fancy, but something extraordinary was happening.

Meanwhile, Cordelia was flustered for much the same reason.

‘Was kissing always…… like this?’

Of course, this was not Cordelia’s first kiss.

After all, she had once been married to a man whom she now despised more than anyone else in the world, despite having once loved him more than anyone else.

Nevertheless, she could say with certainty that she had never experienced a kiss like this before.

‘I feel as though I’m being swept away.’

It felt almost like being caught in the midst of a battle. She was carried away so completely that she could barely think.

The breath pressing into her felt like a scorching wave, and the deepening kiss made her feel as though she were being devoured with no chance of escape.

It certainly hadn’t felt this way when their lips first touched.

Cordelia had only intended to breathe lightly into him before quickly ending this insolent contact, which might cost her her head.

But the moment she parted the man’s firmly closed lips and breathed into him…

She could feel a sudden surge of emotion from the man pressed tightly against her.

The lips against hers trembled.

‘Ugh!’

She had just begun to smile, thinking that it had truly worked.

Then Noel moved, pulling her body flush against his.

His long, broad hand travelled up her arm as though he were playing an instrument.

More.

It was as though that single word were conveyed through his touch.

‘S-Stop.’

Just as a strange sensation, like fine silk brushing over bare skin, made her exhale raggedly, the movement of his hand changed.

His fingers dug into her skin like the talons of a hawk seizing its prey.

“Ah!”

At that moment, Cordelia sensed the knights lurking like shadows around her.

She could hear their startled gasps and feel their piercing stares.

That was right. They were not alone here. The knights must be witnessing this scene, too.

‘No. I have to stop now!’

Her face instantly burned red.

Cordelia hurriedly tried to pull away, but Noel refused to release her.

“……!”

Their bodies pressed together, forcing her back a step.

When she reached out in alarm, she came into unmistakable contact with his firm, heated body.

Contrary to his elegant and noble appearance, the muscles beneath his clothes were hard as stone.

“Hah! Your Highness!”

For a moment, their lips parted.

Like someone finally breaking through the water’s surface, Cordelia hurriedly gasped for breath.

But the reprieve was brief.

“Not enough.”

With those words, spoken in a voice thick with heat, his lips engulfed hers once more.

“……!”

Like a man finally tasting water after enduring a long, agonizing thirst, Noel abandoned his impeccable composure and surrendered entirely.

The heated friction left her lips tingling while warmth gathered in his palm and swept across her back.

Tilting his head, he stole her breath again and again, a low sound rumbling in his throat.

Was this what it felt like to have one’s strength drained away?

It truly felt as though a divine miracle was flowing through her blood and into his body.

“Your Highness!”

At some point, unable to endure the overwhelming heat any longer, Cordelia finally managed to pull away.

His lips swollen as though they might burst, the man seemed to assess something before meeting her gaze.

“Hah…… Hah……”

The lingering flush upon his face reminded her of what they had been doing only moments ago.

Heat rose to Cordelia’s cheeks, but…… she still had to ask.

“Did I prove my worth to Your Highness?”

The man’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. With his pale skin, tousled hair, and clear eyes, he had the fresh, handsome looks of a young man.

He was tempting.

Like a flower in full bloom.

As Cordelia flinched instinctively, he whispered gently and sounded utterly satisfied.

“It seems you did. The effect was far greater than expected…”

He slowly curled his hand into a fist, as though he wanted to seize her and pull her back into his arms.

“We may have no choice but to marry.”